Thursday, February 09, 2012

Do You Pay for Your Cell Phone?

Did you happen to get your "cell phone bill" paid last year by the government?  Shame on you if you didn't.  Why pay for expensive cell phone bills when your government (taxpayers) will take care of those expenditures for you!  Last year, a federal program paid out $1.6 billion to cover free cell phones and the monthly bills of 12.5 million wireless accounts. The program, overseen by the FCC and intended to help low-income Americans, is popular for obvious reasons, with participation rising steeply since 2008, when the government paid $772 million for phones and monthly bills. But observers complain that the program suffers from poor oversight, in which phones go to people who don't qualify, and hundreds of thousands of those who do qualify have more than one phone."

By the way, that "Universal Service Fund Fee" that your carrier charges you every month.  Well, guess what?  That goes to fund all those free cell phone.  Simply call your carrier and ask to be included in the "Lifeline Program."  It will probably take 15 minutes of your time to answer some very basic questions, such as what model of iPhone would you like or if you want to upgrade to an iPad.

No comments: